Of course, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy wasn’t making a speech or otherwise looking to ruffle feathers when he talked about his family’s biblical views. He wasn’t running for—or from—anything. (And, thankfully, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who seems to want to tell everybody else what to do, wisely chose to sit this one out.)

Cathy simply was answering questions posed in an interview distributed by the Baptist Press—and that sealed his fate with so-called liberals and progressives, including those in the dominant media.

“The media’s frenzied feeding on the Chick-fil-A flap has implied that family-friendly means anti-gay and given the impression that Cathy’s original comments set out to stoke one of the hottest issues of the day,” Marshall writes in a guest blog for Patheos.com.

Marshall, as director of Heritage’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, leads the think tank’s work to advance understanding of the importance of the traditional family to human flourishing. In her Patheos post, she details some of the work that Cathy’s father, S. Truett Cathy, began nearly 30 years ago to support marriage and confront divorce and the breakdown of the family:

In 1984, S. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chick-fil-A Inc., launched the WinShape Foundation. It supports college scholarships, foster care and international ministries. Several other programs offer camps for youth and families and marriage support for couples at the WinShape Retreat, a beautiful campus in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in north Georgia.

Marshall highlights WinShape Marriage, which offers resources to prepare for, strengthen and save marriages. Sessions for “nearly wed” or newlywed couples equip them with relational skills. Couples can take advantage of marriage retreats, and, for those in crisis, multi-day “Couples Intensive” sessions in a small-group context designed to heal and restore broken relationships “through concentrated counseling and prayer.”

Marshall writes:

WinShape Retreat has also hosted strategy sessions involving dozens of groups that seek to strengthen marriage in America—among them MarriageSavers, First Things First and Georgia Family Council. A wide-ranging vision aims at cultural transformation, with efforts from marriage education through churches to public service announcements on the benefits of marriage, and from business policies supporting family life to reform of divorce laws.

It’s the kind of work that will take decades—even generations. And it’s not the stuff of headlines, which is why many Americans probably have no idea this critical effort is under way.

To most Americans, the Cathy family’s values—“Chick-fil-A values” —look reassuringly like their own.

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Ken McIntyre, a 30-year veteran of national and local newspapers, serves as senior editor at The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation's Marilyn and Fred Guardabassi Fellow in Media and Public Policy Studies. Send an email to Ken.

Join The Discussion

Having your own personal opinions, and conducting your own personal life as your religious beliefs dictate, is one thing.

Working actively to deny others the rights, benefits, and protections that you yourself take for granted is quite another.

What this editorial neglects to mention is that Dan Cathy donates millions of dollars in Chick-fil-A profits every year to organizations that work actively to deny law-abiding, taxpaying Gay Americans the rights, benefits, and protections that he takes for granted. That's his right, and it's the right of all Americans who support marriage equality to spend their money elsewhere.

What rights were denied? A man doesn't have a right to give his honest opinion without the imagination of gays impressing their ignorance they're not getting enough attention? Everywhere gays go they have to feel their personal sexual preference (that's nobody's business) is accepted? How low life! Why don't you just put some symbol on your forehead so we're forewarned to make sure you're treated softly and fragile, insincere ourselves only for you! Can't accept an honest opinion but hey, political correctness supersede truth cause everyone is weakened to a refusal to face their own so all accountabilities are irrelevant. There's nothing wrong with human weakness exploited. Today's America's freedom is a perfect place to show how weak mankind in America has become! With the help of the gay community amongst others of foreign decent!

That's right conducting your own personal gay life as your religious beliefs dictate and enjoying a service that has nothing to do with sex, but an honest opinion of a man (outside his business) stops you in your tracks for gays to rise up, go out of their way to destroy for attention. They are the strength of America's new change. Intolerant, ignorant, pathetic and spoiled brats with no inner soul! Roll out the red carpet here comes the gays!!!! Mr. Cathy has a right to do with his money what he wants.

The definition of the word marriage holds no limits as defined. It's between a man and a woman. Follow the definition, accept and move on with your private life!

Gay people are to be sympathized. They are a culture of people that are lost in themselves demanding acceptance from all, without sincerity over a matter that needs keeping in private lives. Mr. Cathy serves food to all that choose his business. He doesn't perform marriages or accommodate sexual preference! That's not what his business is. He's interviewed outside his business and you want to destroy his business cause you can't tolerate or accept an honest opinion! Your choice to eat there but your display of personal weakness to misconstrue a man's business cause you're not getting your attention is troubling America! Please stop your trouble making and mind your own business AND LIVE!!

And by the way: Permitting same-sex couples to marry will not affect the number of opposite-sex couples who marry, divorce, cohabit, have children outside of marriage or otherwise affect the stability of opposite-sex marriages. The exclusion of same-sex couples from the federal definition of marriage does nothing to encourage or strengthen opposite-sex marriages.

This has nothing to do with protecting "traditional marriage." For Straight couples, NOTHING is happening to "traditional marriage."

The inclusion of same-sex couples in the federal definition of marriage does NOTHING but gives the gay sub-culture the opportunity to feel good about its hollow, self-serving life style. Most of America is tired of having the gay agenda shoved down its collective throat. There is a reason any legitimate religion does not promote gay life styles – it is a morally void life style. And religions that do tolerate and accept the gay life style illigitimize themselves.

Your posting is typical for everyone that intentionally tries to limit the scope of this argument. Will permitting same-sex couples to marry affect what opposite-sex couples do, probably not. Plainly put, same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into a civil contract to receive the benefits of insurance, inheritance and property ownership. That's all they need to "survive". Should they be included in the definition of "traditional marriage", absolutely not. Including them will open the door to all kinds of variations, which are ALREADY occurring. In one state that allows same-sex marriage, petitions have already been filed to allow multiple women (as in an entire club) to be married to each other. Attempts have been made (referencing the change to the definition of "traditional marriage") in a same-sex state to allow marriage between human and animal (in this instance it's not for sexual reasons, just for legal ones). Once you open the box you'll never close it. The administration is doing everything it can to get the door as wide open as possible because they know their window of opportunity to do so is in jeopardy.

Families include gay people and gay people form families. What we need is small government allowing people to form their own marriage contracts. Deregulate marriage so any two adults can enter the contract, as they can with any other contract. Reduce federal dominance in violation of federalist principles, by repealing DOMA and end the regulatory costs of DOMA for private companies.

It's time to limit government, not expand the federal role for someone's religious agenda.

Why stop at two adults? Why are you so closed-minded? Why don't we just say "marriage" is whatever we want it to be? Stop infringing on my rights, rights that ar guaranteed in the… oh crap, it's not in there, is it.

Why stop at humans? If marriage is only about love, and not about procreation or the best environment for raising children, why can't a man marry his dog or a woman her cat? I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but so was the thought of "gay marriage" maybe only a generation ago.

On a more reasonable note, some states have laws restricting inter-family marriage. Isn't that discriminitory?

Funny, never witnessesd a same-sex couple produce children. This is the primary tenet of marriage, and which has been observed for thousands of years. You are free to be as gay as you want to be in this country. Try it in Iran….

In a world filled with gangs, single parent households, and both poverty and early death as a result, it seems strange that anyone would choose to pick a fight with such a track record as Mr. Cathy over an issue such as family preference. I am no expert on the world, but the gay community does not fight fairly. It is one thing to express opinions, but why would any organization attack with such vengence unless they intend harm. I will be seen in my restaurant on August 1st simply to show my support for my first amendment rights.

Mr. Cathey gets his direction from the bible and Gods words . He will serve anyone who enters his restaurants, but stands on his principals and spends his charitable donations to organizations of his choice . His company treats their employees extremely well ; plus they donate in many ways to organizations of their choice in the communities they serve .

I think this may be the bigger reason for this vitriolic hatred of Chik-Fil-A; statists cannot tolerate independent, charitable people, organizations, businesses, etc. that do not need them and foster that same principle throughout their communities. The marriage issue is just the "straw that broke the camel's back".

We must understand the underlying results the left, led by Obama and the Democrats, want to reach is to destroy everything American. Not only traditional marriage, but family values, religious freedom, freedom of speech, in short, the Contintution and Bill of Rights. Whatever made the America we have grown up in must be destoryed by Obama before he can complete his agenda to drag this nation into his idea of a one world socialist utopia.

Yes, I hope to be there for three meals. It is not really one of my favorites, but I will rally with them just because of the principle involved. I went by my local CFA last week around noon, and it was almost a mob scene. Customers were everywhere, there were no parking spaces and the two drive-through lanes were wrapped around the building. The backlash is underway!!

The only way that Obummer's one-world socialist America will come into being is
if good people that have their head on straight just sit back and do nothing.
He is the most anti-american president I have seen in my lifetime.
If he is re-elected, he will make a hard left turn and tear this country to shreds.
But if you want to try to save this country from going down that sorry road, then
vote against him. And buy some stock in Chick-fil-a while you are at it.

The truth of the matter if that Chick-Fil-A discriminates against no one when it comes to service in their restaurants. Chick-fil-A has nothing against the gay, lesbian or transgender communities. The board of Chick-Fil-A just chooses to spend it's money elsewhere. What is wrong with a company that chooses to follow it's religious and moral compass ? According to the radical left it is paramount that they immediately smear and destroy them.

I for one and a lot of other folks I know still support Chick-Fil-A. The way that they seek to help families is amazing. The facts are that Chick-Fil-A supports charities around the world that work with people and families in trouble and crisis. Does that get brought up ? No, of course not. Dan Cathy has done nothing to vindictively oppose any one… gay, straight, man, woman, black, white, …anyone. Yet, the radical left has vindictively set it sights on Dan Cathy and Chick-Fil-A to smear and destroy them.

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